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And you are totally missing my point. What if the person needs to be in the hospital and says NO? What can you do even as a spouse? LEGALLY YOU CAN'T DO NOTHING! YOU CAN'T TAKE THEM THERE AGAINST THEIR WILL AND SAY PLEASE HELP. YOU HAVE NO LEGAL STANDING TO DO SO UNLESS YOU HAVE A MEDICAL POWER OF ATTORNEY THAT SPECIFICALLY STATES YOU CAN MAKE THESE DECISIONS FOR THEM IF THEY CAN'T.

IF your family member breaks a leg or neck, needs a heart transplant, has a stroke, you can sign permission for treatment even surgery. The laws of treatment for mental illness are not the same. I've told you plainly how it works. That doesn't mean I agree with it I'm just telling you the legal facts.

The family knew the man, they likely knew what it would take to get him help and took the only legal and allowed remedy available to them to get him needed help.

So when does family finally get input? When at the hospital the state or county mental health crisis team shows up. They will probably listen to you. No one else will. Again I do not agree with this as a protocol I'm just saying how it is.

So who should respond then? IMO a team of medical staff of at least a Nurse and two orderlies from a mental hospital who have the training, skills, experience, and MEDICATIONS ON THEIR PERSON to if needed safely get the person to needed help. That was the old system and it worked.

Thank liberal lawmakers, activist judges, and patients rights lawyers, for getting it put off on the Cops and the government calling the shots. Many counties including my own rural one the deputies likely take at least one person a day to a mental facility. In most cases it all goes OK. It is when the patient become combative all hell breaks loose. You don't hear about the thousands of routine transports done daily each day by law enforcement that are successful. Why a cop? Because the patient is handcuffed and placed in the back seat where they can not hurt anyone. Again the paramedics in most places do not transport mental health patients.

ONLY IF THE PATIENT IS WILLING & MENTALLY CAPABLE TO SIGN FOR THEMSELVES PERMISSION FOR TREATMENT CAN YOU TAKE THEM IN AND GET THEM HELP ON YOUR OWN. If not you are S.O.L. Only LEO can take over.